Outobugi released Refire, a free drum effect plugin for digital audio workstations on Windows.
I love a one-stop shop when it comes to effects processors. I use channel strips quite a bit when mixing, with the recent release of Prestige Racks by NoiseAsh being my go-to for the time being.
That said, drum processing is always a bit of a bugbear, especially when looking at the whole bus. Thankfully, I don’t have to spend a dime when looking at Refire by Outobugi.
So, what is Refire? It’s a drum processing chain contained in a single plugin, making for an easy go at getting the snap and slap you need out of a drum bus. To this end, you’ve got five major processors to contend with in shaping your drums.
Bang is a transient shaper, with the size corresponding to the envelope and the level corresponding directly to gain. It sounds great in motion, especially on kicks and snares.
Heat is the star of the show for me, and offers up three different flavours of waveshaping for your distorting needs. It may be second in the controls, but it is actually third in the signal flow.
Sub is a subharmonic oscillator. It really does add quite a bit of girth to a kick, which is well worth using. The controls range over two octaves from C1 to C2. The overall volume detects how noticeable the effect is.
Detail works as a set of filters, offering a high-shelf on Air and a tilt on Tone. This also comes with a white noise generator that can help add a little texture to your drums.
Refire’s final control is the Clamp, which acts as a soft or hard clipper. The ceiling works as you’d expect, and the rotary knob for type dictates how much of either you’re working with.
All said, Refire is made for DnB and house drum bus duties. If you’re looking to slam drums beyond reasonable doubt, this is the tool for you.
While you’re checking out Refire, you might as well check out Wave by the same developer. This is a tremolo and auto-panning effect that works quite well. Controls are kept equally simple to Refire, making for fast results.
Refire and Wave are Windows-only. You’ll need a 64-bit host, as you expect. The only supported plugin format is VST3, so Pro Tools users will need a wrapper to fully use them.
Download: Refire (FREE)
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18 Comments
Ike Hayes
onWell, its worth mentioning, that this is a clone or KNOCK-off (pun intended) of DECAP’s KNOCK plugin. The parameters and the layout are very similar.
LLOYD
onYou beat me to it Ike, it’s borderline blatant
Ants
onThanks for the mention I didn’t know this company. I have to say their plugin is outrageously expensive to be honest. $119 is a lot of money.
And this free version shows plugins should not be SO EXPENSIVE, unless it really really sounds so divine, and even..
L
onJust keep an eye on your favorite “expensive” plug-ins throughout the year. Use a price history tracker or SkickDeals site/app, or blogs like this one. You get the idea. 👍
At least 2-3 times a year (often more) most of them will drop 85-95% for sale on holidays, or sometimes just some random day free for 24 hours.
Big Dazz
onDefinitely!
Robin
onWow! Very good looking and sounding plugin with a no fuss download to boot. I already love what bang and detail does to something I was working on. Very nice plugin. This one will probably find its way into many more projects. I quickly checked what else the developer is working on and there are some more nice freebees. Thanks Outobugi and of course Liam for posting it!
Hammer
onInstantly like it
CGrrr
onI like this. Great work!
Your Name
onoversampling instantly crashes reaper
alex
onWorks fine here under Windows 10.
Coopmusic247
onI’m oversampling up to 705.6k/768k and not getting a crash. Windows 11, i7-10700 CPU, 64 gb ram
I do wish the pitch generator on the sub would give note names. Hz would be fine too if the dev wants to provide finer control.
Coopmusic247
onAnd I’m running Reaper 7.07
Docent Novak
onThis is a very useful plugin. Thanks
alex
onThx. Very nice plugin.
Bani
onCan anyone report the pdc reaper shows for this? I’m considering it for live use.
Tim
onChanging the oversampling settings leads to a crash of Studio One (Windows 10).
Dee
onOoh this is pretty damn good actually. Easy to dial in. Can suck the life out if overdone.
No problems here with crashing. Max oversampling, Win10, MPC 2.12 (with Vst3shell). Latency is tight too.
Mark
onIt’s kind of like a cross between Ableton’s Drum Buss and Baby Audio’s Parallel Aggressor. It is not a subtle effect as you can mangle drums pretty drastically with it. Finally I can make my bongo playing sound WORLD CLASS!! :P haha.